


Cleats, Christmas and Confessions

by bunnysworld



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Blow Jobs, Eventual Smut, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-17
Updated: 2013-12-17
Packaged: 2018-01-02 12:21:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1056704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin has a crush on his team-mate Gwaine since forever. But he knows he will never have a chance since Gwaine has a new girlfriend each weekend. So he's in for some surprises when he gets injured in the school's last soccer game before Christmas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cleats, Christmas and Confessions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ms_worplesdon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ms_worplesdon/gifts).



> This was written for [ aunt_agatha](http://archiveofourown.org/users/aunt_agatha)for the Merlin_holidays 2013. I hope you like it. Happy holidays!
> 
> Thanks to J. and D. who I bounced some ideas off on the way to Bonn and could finally write when we were back. 
> 
> Thanks a million to trusty beta, who once again bravely wrestled my language. Everything that's still in there is entirely my own.

Merlin frowned and zipped the jacket of his track suit up. A glance towards the evening sky promised snow for the night. If they were really unlucky, it would start snowing while the game was still on. So he was rather happy that this was the last game for the year. Only 90 more minutes of chasing a ball and then they would be able to go home for the holidays. Merlin was already looking forward to his mam’s home-made pie and Christmas cookies. Not that he could have too many of them, he needed to be in shape for when they returned in January, but that was far from his mind now.

There was something else he was happy about. He would not have to see Gwaine Greene, centre of the Camelot Dragons and star scorer of the team. Merlin knew he was fighting a lost cause, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of him since they first met in a corridor in their first year. Immediately he had crushed on the boy with the intense eyes that always seemed to sparkle with mirth, the long hair that he wanted to run his fingers through and the mischievous smile that just begged to be kissed. Of course Merlin hadn’t acted on it, he was too shy to even say hello back. His feelings just intensified when they both tried out for the school’s soccer team and had worked together to find their way into the team and to learn the plays. They sat nights to analyse the other teams and discussed tactics often. 

But Gwaine was a ladies’ man, flitting from one flirt to the next, having more girlfriends than Merlin could remember. He was just not interested in blokes. So Merlin had drawn back and settled on watching from afar. As long as Gwaine was near, he was not able to concentrate on any other man, so Merlin had spent the better part of the last three years alone. It wasn’t as if he didn’t have friends, just nobody to snuggle up to at night or to snog at a party. Maybe the Christmas hiatus would give him some time to detach himself from Gwaine a bit. 

Arthur, team captain and Gwaine’s best friend, patted Merlin’s shoulder as they stepped onto the field. “Still barking up that tree, Merlin?” he asked, a sympathetic look on his face. “Go, find yourself a cute guy while you’re at home in…what’s it called? Eldar?”

“Ealdor,” Merlin corrected absent-mindedly before he tore his eyes off of where Gwaine was flirting with one of the girls who came to see them play. “What do you mean?”

“I see you looking at him. I roomed with him for years now, he doesn’t swing that way, Merlin. He asked for my sister’s phone number.” Arthur patted Merlin’s cheek. “Go, warm up, we have a match to win.”

Arthur Pendragon’s sister. Morgana Pendragon. She was famous amongst the players. She visited Arthur for a game once a year and managed to make all the guys fall for her. Not that she ever gave in to any of them, but they all drooled all over themselves as soon as she got near. And now Gwaine had asked for her phone number. Oh well, this hiatus couldn’t come soon enough. 

Merlin checked the cleats on his left boot again before he started his warm-up routine. The ground felt frozen under his feet and he worked a bit harder to get his muscles into working temperature. He didn’t want to be a wimp, but why on earth couldn’t they play in a hall in this weather?

Stretching, Merlin’s gaze wandered over to Gwaine again, who stood there, his legs apart, and gyrated his hips. Damn, that would give him ideas later, for when he was alone again. 

His blush deepened when Percy passed by and nudged his arm. The goalie had seen where his eyes had lingered on Gwaine’s tight little butt. Shrugging, he gave Percy a shaky smile. Obviously the whole team knew about his crush. Everyone, but Gwaine. Merlin preferred to keep it that way. It would only complicate things if he had to talk about them.

It didn’t take long before they shook hands with the Mercia Wyverns, their arch rivals. Merlin knew he had to concentrate on the match, they couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. So he tried to shove Gwaine out of his mind, which wasn’t too easy since they were a good team and could pass the ball between them without even looking. 

Merlin wasn’t even involved in that first goal. It had been more luck than anything else that Arthur’s shot hit the goal post and bounced back, directly in front of Gwaine’s feet. The Wyvern’s keeper slipped on the frozen ground and Gwaine hammered the ball into the net. 

This didn’t mean they had time to lean back and enjoy the rest of the game. Mercia fought back. Leon in defence had a hard time to keep their centre at bay and was very lucky that the ref turned a blind eye most of the time he attempted to keep the guy at arm’s length. 

The whistle blew and they all made their way back to the locker where it was hopefully a lot warmer than out on the field. The applause of the few fans that had found their way to the pitch was muffled by their gloves and Merlin wished he had thought of bringing a pair himself. It was frowned upon playing in long pants but he could get away with gloves. 

Elyan, who walked behind Merlin, chuckled.

“What’s so funny?”

“The way your head steams in the cold.”

Merlin rolled his eyes. “Maybe that’s because I’m so hot.”

Elyan just laughed and nudged Merlin’s arm as they finally entered the tunnel.

Coach held another little pep talk as everyone was getting reading for second half, but all Merlin could think was ‘Just another 45 minutes and we’re out of here.’ So he readjusted his shin guards, rubbed his hands together and got up as it was time to finish this game. 

The ref started the game again and Merlin’s full concentration went into it. Whatever Mercia’s coach had told them seemed to work, the Dragons had some difficulties to get back into the game. Some stupid individual mistakes and the slippery ground let Percy curse as he had to reach behind himself to get the ball. 1:1 

Merlin gritted his teeth. They wouldn’t go into winter hiatus with a draw, they had to win this. He got into some little tussles with the defence player, some he won, some he lost. More than once he found himself sliding across the ground. That it had started to snow didn’t really help; but this far into the game, nobody wanted it aborted either. Wiping a big snowflake off his face that started to melt immediately, Merlin watched Arthur getting the ball back. He moved with him towards the goal, always trying to get away from his opponent. The moment he managed, Arthur passed the ball over and Merlin started to run.

Only to be stopped by cleats against his ankle. He yelled out in pain, crashed to the ground and rolled around, his face a mask of pain. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! It always hurt when cleats connected with any part of your body, but the arsehole had managed to catch a spot that made Merlin see stars. Immediately his team-mates gathered around him, but Merlin didn’t even notice Arthur arguing with the referee, who refused to see the foul as such and didn’t even show the offender a yellow card, much less the red one as Arthur demanded. Which earned him a yellow card in turn. 

“Merlin! Merlin, is it bad? Can you get up? Merlin, don’t do this to me. Please be okay!”

Only from a distance, Merlin noticed that someone was talking to him. He was sure that his ankle was broken. At least! He never was the whiny one when it came to injuries. He was a soccer player and sometimes that just hurt. On top of that, he didn’t want to be the whiny gay bloke, so most of the time, he just grit his teeth, took a deep breath, got up and continued. But there was something seriously wrong with his foot. As strong arms hauled him up, he yelled out again as he tried to stand on it. 

He was thankful for Percy supporting him as he hopped off the field on his good foot, Gwaine on his other side. At any other time, Merlin would have loved having Gwaine so close, but that thought was washed out of his brain by the pain his ankle sent through him. As he sat down at the side-line, so Patrick, the team’s physio, could take a look at the injury, someone hung a blanket around his shoulders and handed him a beanie, which he pulled deep into his eyes right away. Nobody needed to see the tears that formed as soon as Patrick just touched his foot. 

A while later, Patrick put an ice pack on the ankle and shook his head. “We need to get this x-rayed.”

Merlin groaned. “Nooo, I just need a hot shower and some rest.”

“Merlin, this might be a serious injury, we need to get this checked.” The other man helped him to get up and to the locker room. “The game’s over in a few minutes. Do you think you can do until then? The moment the ref blows the whistle, I’ll be back and take you to the A&E.”

Knowing there was not much arguing with Patrick, Merlin sighed. He had pictured the start into the holidays quite a bit different. In his mind, a lot of eggnog and some mistletoe should be involved and late-night kisses in front of the fireplace. Now he was facing a night at the hospital and if he was lucky, he would return to a cold dorm room since Percy had already packed his stuff and would be gone the moment the game was over. 

He threw a longing look towards the showers, but knew he couldn’t do it alone. What if he slipped and hurt something else? So he just pulled his track pants on with some difficulty and was just about to pull his hoodie over his sweaty jersey when the team came back.

“What did he say, Merlin?” In no time, Merlin was surrounded by Arthur, Percy, Leon and Gwaine, Elyan hovering close-by, too. 

“A&E,” Merlin replied, not very enthusiastically. 

“Aw, man!” Percy sat down next to him. “I’m sorry. Will you be okay tonight? I could take the train in the morning…”

Merlin shook his head. “No. You’ve been looking forward to seeing Lana again for so long. You’ll take the late train. Otherwise you’ll only whine at me all night.”

The others laughed.

“But you need someone to look after you,” Arthur pulled his jersey over his head. “You can’t be left alone when you’re not injured, tripping over things, dropping stuff. You’re a hazard to yourself, even more so if you’ll end up in a cast.”

Merlin paled. He didn’t need that. He didn’t want a cast. “I’m sure the x-ray will turn out fine and I will be okay in the morning.” He knew he didn’t sound half as confident as he tried to.

“Come on, Merlin, let’s go. This close to the holidays, the A&E will be overflowing with people.” 

+++

 

As Merlin leaned back on a cot, resting his hurting ankle, Patrick peeked his head into the room.

“No news.” Merlin yawned. He was tired, he was hurting and he was hungry. All he wanted to do was getting back to the dorm as soon as possible.

“Hmm…I just got a call.” Patrick made a face. “Elise can’t pick the kids up from nursery school…”

“Go, that’s more important. Don’t worry, I’ll just get a taxi.” Merlin knew he couldn’t really afford that, but no way would he be able to walk the distance with this foot. 

Patrick shoved a twenty into Merlin’s hand. “If this takes longer, give me a call, okay? As soon as Elise is home, I can come back. And call if they’ll make you stay and you need something.”

Merlin nodded tiredly and closed his eyes. It wasn’t as if Patrick was his best friend and it was okay that he left now, but all of a sudden, Merlin felt all alone in this world. He pondered calling his mam, but she would only worry her head off. No need to call before he knew what was wrong or if he could travel in the next two days. 

Percy would already have left when he got back. Usually, he didn’t mind a bit of time alone in their room. Percy was a great roomie and a good friend, but yeah, peace and quiet weren’t bad either. 

But tonight, he didn’t really want to be alone. Oh well, no need to worry about that. There must be someone left at the house when he came back.

A young doctor opened the door. “Ah…Merlin, right?”

Merlin nodded and straightened up a bit.

“The x-ray came back clear, so it doesn’t look as if anything’s broken. It’s a bit hard to tell with all the swelling. We might need to take another x-ray in two or three days to be absolutely sure. For the moment it just looks as if some of the tendons in your ankle are over-expanded.” The doctor looked up from his clipboard for the first time and gave Merlin a reassuring smile. “Yeah, I know, not a nice Christmas present. We’ll give you one of those nifty boot-thingies and crutches and you come back in a week and we’ll check again, okay?”

A little bit of the colour that had drained out of Merlin’s face slowly came back. “So…I don’t have to stay?”

The doctor pulled a little stool close, sat down and examined Merlin’s ankle again. “Do you have someone to look after you tonight?”

Just as Merlin chewed his lower lip and not wanting to admit that no, nobody would be around and he was all on his own, the door opened and Gwaine breezed in. “Yes, he does.”

Merlin was so surprised that he didn’t really hear that the doctor agreed to sign his dismissal after the nurses were done supplying Merlin with everything he needed. 

“Make sure to be back in a week.”

Sighing, Merlin leaned back again. There went his plans of going home for the holidays. How on earth could he let his mam down like that? His head shot up when he heard Gwaine speak. “He’ll be in Ealdor for the holidays, but his mother is a nurse and they do have a good hospital there, too.”

“Ealdor? “ The doctor smiled. “I’ll call Gaius to let him know you’re coming.”

“You…you know Uncle Gaius?” It all happened too fast. How could Gwaine say he would spend the holidays at home? He was not able to move properly, how on earth would he board a train? And then the doctor knew Gaius?

“He’s your uncle? Perfect! He’ll take good care of you. With things the way they are, I have no objection to let you go now.” The doctor got up, made a few notes on the clipboard and went to the door. “Even though it might not feel like it yet, happy holidays, boys.”

Merlin automatically murmured a ‘happy holidays’ as Gwaine gave the doctor one of his full wattage beams. 

Before he could sort his thoughts, though, and ask Gwaine what the heck he was doing here, a nurse rushed in, took care of finding the right boot for Merlin and brought him some crutches. A prescription for pain killers later, both him and Gwaine were standing in front of the hospital. 

“Wait here, I’ll get the car.” And again, Gwaine was gone. Merlin brushed the snow off a small wall and sat down. What was Gwaine doing here? He had boasted about flying to the Carribean for the holidays and his plane should have left – Merlin checked his mobile – an hour ago. But there he was, pulling his shiny new car up to the curb and rushing over to help Merlin up and into the car.

“Comfy?”

“As much as possible.” 

Gwaine stopped by the pharmacy and convinced the clerk, who was just closing up, to sell him the pain killers, which Merlin was thankful for. He couldn’t have mustered the energy to argue with anyone and even though his ankle was immobilized, it hurt. 

He popped in two of the tablets as soon as Gwaine was back and felt nicely sleepy by the time they reached the house. Merlin let Gwaine manhandle him up to his room, strip him out of his sports clothes – where was his right runner? – tuck him in and bring him some tea. Had his mind not be so fuzzy, he might have wondered why Gwaine was doing all these things. But he just gave a sleepy little grunt when Gwaine snatched the remote, switched on the TV that Percy had brought after summer and made himself comfy on Percy’s bed.

+++

Merlin woke up with a groan as he tried to turn around. Fuck! The memories of the night before crashed back on him and he tried to sit up.

“Can you moan a bit louder?” Gwaine blinked sleepily from the other side of the room. 

“What…?” 

Scrambling up, rubbing his eyes and running his hand through his longish hair, Gwaine yawned. “I promised the doctor to not leave you alone. And Percy’s not here anyway, he won’t mind.”

Merlin wasn’t so sure about that. But what was worse…there was Gwaine…and there was his morning erection. No matter how much his foot bothered him, his dick seemed to be functioning normally.

“Everything okay?”

“Err…yeah, think so.”

Gwaine shuffled around, handed Merlin the pain killers and then yawned again. “Gonna take a shower before we get you in there. And you might want to call your mom to tell her we’re coming.”

Staring at Gwaine, Merlin froze. “We?” His brain had to be too dulled by the pain killers last night to think about his transport issue. 

“Yeah,” Gwaine padded to the bathroom, “the snow has stopped, I’ll drive.”

As Merlin moved around to get into a sitting position, he grit his teeth. It didn’t feel like the swelling in his ankle had gone down any and it still hurt a lot. And he needed to call his mam to tell her…what exactly? His first notion was to tell her that he wouldn’t be able to make it with this ankle. But that would only worry her so much that she would try to come over, which Merlin didn’t really want either. They couldn’t afford her staying at a hotel just because he was too dumb to take his feet out of the way of the other players’ cleats. 

When Gwaine came back, all freshly showered, they argued back and forth for a while before Merlin finally agreed to being driven to Ealdor. He made a quick call to let his mother know and then set out on the difficult task to finally take a shower. 

“Don’t be such a prude, Merlin, I’ve seen you in the locker room a thousand times.” Gwaine grumbled after he found a plastic stool they could put in the shower stall. “Off with the clothes. What kind of impression would we leave if you showed up at your mother’s house all stinky and unshowered?”

With that, he pulled Merlin’s pants down and shoved him down onto the stool and Merlin couldn’t do much more than shriek. Why did Gwaine worry about the impression they would leave on his mam?

Merlin was still busy thinking about that while he was safely buckled up in the passengers’ seat. Gwaine didn’t say much, concentrating on the streets and Merlin was more than okay with this, he had enough to think about. This behaviour wasn’t normal for Gwaine. Percy, yes, Percy would have stayed the night if he had asked him to do it. He’d put him on the earliest train to Ealdor and hoped that someone would pick him up at the station. Leon might have peeked in during the night to see if he was okay and would probably even have driven him to Ealdor, it wasn’t too much of a detour on the way to his parents. Arthur? He would have paid someone to do it. But Gwaine? Gwaine usually joked things off. The Gwaine he knew would have told him to suck it up, take some pain killers and be a man. A pat on the back and a reminder of when his train left, that was Gwaine. It wasn’t that he was a selfish prat who didn’t care about others. But life was a game for him. Occasionally, on a whim, he’d do something nice for someone, but what he did now exceeded everything. 

“We’re here.”

Merlin perked up when Gwaine shut the motor down. “Yeah, we are. That was fast.” He scrambled out of the car and slowly made his way to the door.

“Merlin!” Hunith already rushed out of the house to greet him.

“Mam…mam, you’re…suffocating me!”

Hunith laughed and cupped his face with her hands. “I’m just happy that you are here. Come in, come in, you need to rest your foot. How bad is it?”

“I’ll live.” And it would be a lot easier to get into the house if mam didn’t make such a fuss. “Mam, this is Gwaine.” He nodded across his shoulder.

He smiled as he heard Gwaine charm his mother off her socks. That was the Gwaine he knew, the one he could handle. 

When they were settled in the small living room – Gwaine admired the little Christmas tree that already adorned a corner – and had hot apple juice with cinnamon, Hunith asked about the incident, claiming that as a nurse, she needed to know all the details.

“He was great, Mrs. Emrys! You should have seen him! He picked up that pass from Arthur and made his way towards the goal and then this arsehole, oh, ‘scuse me, that…player from the other team just went for him. Not the ball! For him! He so should have been tossed off the field!”

Merlin blinked. He hadn’t been that good. It was a normal situation during a game and an unfortunate foul. 

“And he even wanted to continue, but I took him off the field right away. I knew something was wrong, it was really worrying.”

Throwing Gwaine a look, Merlin sipped his juice. “It wasn’t that dramatic, mam. It was a foul, I couldn’t go on, they took me for an x-ray and I ended up with this.” He pointed to his foot, shrugging. 

Hunith had demanded all the medical information, too, looked at the x-ray pictures and checked the medication. “We’ll call Gaius.”

“No need for that, mam. I’ll be okay in no time.”

“I sure hope so. And I hope you didn’t get a cold, sitting on the ground at the side line while Patrick checked your foot. Good thing I got you that blanket and beanie right away.” Gwaine stuffed his face with Christmas cookies.

“That was you?” Merlin was more confused by the minute. 

Gwaine just threw him one of his trademark smiles. 

“Now you’re here, boys, and we’ll take care of everything. First things first.” Hunith got up. “You can take a nap here, Merlin, after taking your medicine and if you want to, Gwaine, you can help me prepare dinner.”

“But Gwaine has to…” Merlin protested. 

“I’d love to.” Gwaine jumped up.

“Don’t you have to get back?” Merlin swallowed his pain killers with a bit of apple juice and rearranged himself on the couch.

“It started snowing again. He can’t drive in this weather. He’ll have to stay.” Hunith decided and Gwaine didn’t object. In fact, he grinned like a cat who’d got the canary and if the pain killers hadn’t started to set in, Merlin might have been a bit worried about that.

+++

When he woke up again, Merlin was greeted with the sight of Gaius, who was not really his uncle, but he’d known him all of his life. He was the head surgeon at the local hospital and checked his foot that showed all the shades of a huge bruise, before they all settled in for dinner. 

Merlin hardly dared to throw looks at Gwaine, who easily made conversation with both, his mother and Gaius. Why was he still here? Not that Merlin didn’t want him around. It was so much more than he ever dreamed of. But Gwaine could afford anything he wanted and was used to better accommodation. Their little house, that Merlin always had seen as cuddly and cozy, seemed to be shabby and tiny all of a sudden. What would Gwaine think? 

Later, Merlin had made his way up to his room and looked around in panic. His bag was there and already unpacked, mam must have done that. Had Gwaine been in here, too? His heart was beating wildly when he noticed that his mother had made a bed out of his old couch. That meant that she expected Gwaine to sleep there tonight. How would he be able to make it through the night? 

“Are you done yet?” Gwaine came in and didn’t even look around. So he’d been up here before, Merlin figured. 

“Not even started.” Merlin tried a smile.

“Anything I can help you with?” Gwaine deliberately didn’t look at Merlin.

Yes. Yes, please. But Merlin knew it was nothing Gwaine would ever give him. “Nah, I’m fine.” He made his way over to his bed and sat down. Since it was difficult to move with the crutches in a place as small as this, he’d left them downstairs.

He watched Gwaine rummaged around in his own bag. Why hadn’t he noticed that Gwaine had packed for at least a couple of nights? 

“Gwaine?”

“Yeah?”

When the other boy looked up, Merlin didn’t really know what to say. Merlin knew Gwaine was beautiful when he laughed, when his eyes sparkled and when he tossed his hair back playfully. But the earnest look on his face now totally blew him away. 

“Nothing.” Merlin blushed and tried to arrange himself on the bed. “Are you tired yet?”

Gwaine smiled. “No, not really. Driving was a bit exhausting, but it was nothing that couldn’t be remedied with Hunith’s wonderful cooking and the nice company.”

Registering that his mam must have asked Gwaine to call her by her first name, Merlin nodded and then reached for his tablets. 

“Need some water with those?” 

“Yeah, I forgot to bring any.” It would have been impossible anyway, since Merlin needed both hands to make it up the stairs. Before he even finished that thought, Gwaine was out the door and then came back with two bottles. “Thanks.”

Merlin took his pills and missed that Gwaine was watching him closely.

“Does it still hurt badly?” Gwaine came over and sat on the edge of Merlin’s bed.

Shrugging, Merlin wiped a few droplets off his lips. “Not as bad as last night, but still enough. Meh, I hate this. I want to be fit for when the season starts again.”

“Maybe I can help you with the pain?”

When Merlin turned his head, he found Gwaine’s face close to his, Gwaine looking into his eyes and Merlin’s breath caught. What was that supposed to mean? He could only squeak slightly when Gwaine brushed his lips over his. Even though this was something he’d wanted in forever, Merlin pulled back, his heart beating wildly. “Gwa…”

Gwaine didn’t allow objections. His hand came up behind Merlin’s head as he kissed him again and Merlin just sighed as his eyes fell shut. Yes, that was what he wanted. All of this might be a dream triggered by the pain killers he’d just popped in, but hey, it was a nice dream, so why not give into it?

Carefully, Gwaine moved around and kissed Merlin’s chin and down his neck, his hands making their way under Merlin’s sweater. “Off with it,” he whispered and pulled back just enough to be able to pull the sweater over Merlin’s head. 

Merlin breathed hard. This must be a dream. No way Gwaine was just seducing him. This didn’t really happen. Real or not, it still felt fantastic when Gwaine kissed down his chest and teased his nipples on the way. Merlin’s yelped when he felt Gwaine palm him through his sweatpants. “Gwaine…”

“I can’t stop, Merlin, I just have to…” Gwaine pulled Merlin’s sweatpants and briefs down far enough and groaned when he finally got his fingers on Merlin’s cock.

“Fuck.” Merlin slumped back into the pillows. He decided to do the thinking later. How many nights had he dreamed of something like that happening? Gwaine’s fingers on him felt warm and soft and there was no better feeling in the world. He sucked in his breath and his eyes flew open when he felt something new. Lifting his head, he peeked down his body. “Fuck!” he repeated. Gwaine’s tongue on his prick sent shivers all through him.

Gwaine took his time, licking here, stroking there, brushing his lips along the hot shaft, breathing over wet spots his tongue had left. He didn’t seem to have a plan but that drove Merlin crazy. “More?”

Merlin fisted the sheets and moaned when he saw Gwaine taking a deep breath and then going down on him. The feeling of the hot wet tongue around the head of his dick was not like anything he ever experienced. He hissed when he felt Gwaine’s teeth and sometimes it really tickled when Gwaine didn’t use enough pressure, but after a while, Gwaine found a steady rhythm of sucking and Merlin felt his orgasm building. “Gwai…Gwaine…” he panted out a warning, but Gwaine either didn’t understand it or ignored it and Merlin tensed and came. 

Panting, Merlin lay back in his pillows, his eyes closed, trying to find something to say. But what did you say to the straight friend you’ve been pining for forever who’d just given you a blowjob?

Gwaine slowly got up and padded over to the couch, switching the light off on his way. Merlin heard him settle in. He wouldn’t be able to sleep now. 

“Gwaine?” Maybe Gwaine had fallen asleep. That way Merlin could avoid the awkward talk or at least postpone it until the morning. But he was sure he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all now.

“Yeah?”

Oh fuck, Gwaine was awake. Merlin didn’t say anything for a while. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to?”

Gwaine wanted to give him a blowjob. “Why now? I mean…I don’t understand?”

“I’ve wanted to do this for a while now.”

Merlin blinked into the half dark. “But…you’re not into blokes.”

“Maybe I’m into you?”

“How…,” Merlin scrambled up into a sitting position, not caring that his sweatpants were still around his knees. “You’ve been going out with a lot of girls, how can you be into…me?”

“Maybe it’s not so much the gender but the person? I don’t know.” Gwaine moved around, too. Merlin only vaguely saw it, but he heard the blankets and the way Gwaine’s voice reached him sounded different, too. 

Taking another deep breath, Merlin asked, “You…why didn’t you tell me before?”

“How could I? We got along so well from the beginning but then you pulled back and sometimes you were so distant that I wondered what I’d done wrong. And everyone kept telling me that you have this huge-ass crush on me, but you never said anything either. So I thought they just made it up to trick me.”

Merlin’s head shot up. “They…they told you?” His cheeks and ears were burning. 

“Yeah. So I flirted with girls, but it wasn’t the same.”

“You flirt with everything with a pulse.” Merlin smiled.

Gwaine laughed. “Yeah, probably, but I never really mean it. And you never reacted.”

“Because I thought I was just one of the boys. You went out with a different girl each weekend, how could I have told you?” Merlin wasn’t sure if he was close to yelling at Gwaine in frustration or being deliriously happy. 

“We’re both idiots, aren’t we?” Gwaine grinned, Merlin could hear it.

“Guess we are.” 

“So…was that blowjob good enough for you to consider it?”

Merlin’s head was spinning and his heart was beating quickly. He didn’t dare to smile widely yet. “Best I ever got.”

“First one you ever got.” Gwaine dead-panned him. 

The blush on his face deepened, Merlin could feel it. “Yeah…”

Laughing, Gwaine threw the blankets off. “First I ever gave.”

Merlin heard him pad over and smiled when he felt the edge of his mattress dipping as Gwaine sat down. He reached out and found Gwaine’s hand in the dark. “Felt good to me, but maybe we can practice some more some other time?” Merlin was happy that Gwaine couldn’t see his face. 

“Sure, but…” the smirk was back in Gwaine’s voice. “Holding hands, Merlin? Really?”

Merlin laughed. That was the Gwaine he knew, the Gwaine he could handle. “Really. And maybe, just if you’re very nice, a small kiss at the end of the evening.”

Groaning, Gwaine flomped on the bed next to Merlin. “I picked you up from the hospital, paid for your pain killers, carried your stuff around, went to fetch water for you, charmed your mother off her socks, give you the best blow job ever and all I’ll get is a small kiss at the end of the evening?”

“Oh, so you wanted to drug me to get to what you wanted, I see!” Merlin chuckled. “And please, never mention mam and a blowjob in the same sentence again!”

Gwaine chuckled as he leaned in. “Okay, that was probably not the most sexy thing I’ve ever said. But…we could pick it up again here?” He brushed his lips over Merlin’s.

Merlin wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close. 

They kissed for a while before Merlin groaned in pain.

“Your foot?” Gwaine drew back and looked worried. 

Merlin nodded and readjusted his foot on the bed. “The worried-boyfriend-look doesn’t suit you, though.”

“Heal the fuck up so I can give you another blowjob?” Gwaine grinned.

“That’s more like it.”

To at least attempt to maintain decency, they put a DVD in the player, but Hunith refrained from asking them what the movie was about the next morning as she wordlessly kissed Merlin’s forehead and slipped a strip of condoms into his pocket when she came back from grocery shopping and found the boys in the kitchen.


End file.
